Aquarium staff over the moon at sunfish find in harbour
Sunfish are so called as they drift at the surface as if basking in the sun
THE Two Oceans Aquarium has welcomed a strange looking ocean sunfish, called a Mola mola, to its Predator Exhibit.
The sunfish has a beaked mouth, like a parrot’s, and looks paper-thin when viewed from directly in front or behind. Ocean sunfish are the heaviest known bony fish in the world.
This sunfish had been spotted in the V&A Waterfront harbour for several days before the aquarium team found it.
They said it had been a particularly busy time in the harbour, which they believed may have contributed to a degree to the disorientation in the sunfish.
The sunfish is being kept separate from the other inhabitants of the Predator Exhibit, in a temporary enclosure for the time being, so that experts at the facility can feed and rehydrate it, and closely monitor its health and behaviour over the next few days.
The aquarium team constructed a temporary enclosure in record time to accommodate the sunfish inside the exhibit.
This will also give the other animals in the exhibit – ragged-tooth sharks, dusky kob, mullet and yellowbelly rockcod – a chance to get to know the newcomer.
When found, the sunfish was covered in two types of parasites, which were removed by hand, with tweezers, before it was lowered into the enclosure.
Two Oceans Aquarium curator Maryke Musson said: “The parasite load on the sunfish was lower than expected. They’re usually covered in parasites, but we decided to clean it off and keep an eye on it for a while.”
Sunfish are known for being covered in skin parasites. To counter this, sunfish employ a number of tactics: cleaner wrasse and other reef fish often help out, and by basking on its side at the surface, sunfish allow seabirds to feed on the parasites.
This sunfish also appears to have a big hole going through its chin which the facility’s experts suspect could be an old wound, possibly caused by a fishing hook.
Aquarist Simon Leigh, who helped move the sunfish into the exhibit, said he always wears gloves when working with sunfish.
“Sunfish have incredibly rough skin so it can chafe you, like sandpaper,” Leigh said.
Sunfish are so called because of their habit of drifting at the surface as if basking in the sun.
They do not have tails as other fishes do – the caudal (tail) fin has been replaced by a rudder-like structure.
Sunfish seen at sea are often mistaken for sharks because of the shape of their dorsal fin.